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[ a parent's guide to anime ]

[ rated pg ] Gundam Wing

A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: PG
Parental Guidance Advised

Review by Christa Morse:

This is one of the "Alternate Universe" Gundam series, having no connection to the 3 movies (a rehash of the 70s TV series) that Anime Village put out a while back beyond the familiar looking mechas.

Gundam Wing's plot line is one filled with political strife, corruption, greed, and 5 teenage boys (among many others) coping with war.

The colonies orbiting the earth are being oppressed by the government of Earth and demand freedom.

5 scientists from 5 different colonies each build a Gundam, train a pilot and send them and their mecha to Earth to fight. All 5 are talented pilots and rip through their opponents with ease.

However, with some political manipulation, the colonies that once supported them have turned against them. Now, the 5 pilots must fight their fight hidden or underground and restore peace to earth and space.


Additional review by Cole Stant:

Gundam Wing has proven itself to be one of the highest quality animes I have ever seen. Some might be able to relate a majority of the technology seen in GW to that seen in Robotech. Overall the plot line continues to thicken throughout the entire series drawing you in all the more so.

The main theme to GW is about a few brave souls batteling for freedom from oppression. Set in the near future man has expanded its outreach into space. Now huge colonies that people live in orbit the Earth. Even though the colonies are nearly entirely self-sufficient the Earth's rulers still maintain a dominant command over them.

To accomplish their goals, (good or bad) the fighting forces in Gundam Wing use mobile suits. This is where you see an extreme likness to other series like Robotech and Patlabor. The mobile suits are equipped with a variety of weaponry that allows for both long drawn out battles but at the same time heroic duels.

While this is an anime that may not be suitable for extremely young children and the faint of heart, it is by far an anime that a family could enjoy watching together.


Additional review by Molly C.:

Gundam Wing is one of the most detailed and creative anime shows I've seen. Unlike many other shows, it depicts what real life can be like and the ways that people deal with themselves in times of war. Though it revolves around war and therefore, death, it is wholy true to life.

Briefly the story is as follows: War is brewing between the Earth Alliance and the Colonies in space, provoked perhaps, not quite by accident. As the coming storm grows closer, five young men are sent to Earth, dark 'saviors' that hold mysterious but powerful new weapons called Gundams.

Out of the shadows, steps another organization, OZ, founded by Treize Khushrenadah, a dangerous soldier, slippery but honorable. This organization is crafty and it offers to protect the colonies by bringing in advanced weapons called mobile suits, but really, it is slowly surrounding them and infiltrating. It is up too these five soldiers, doomed to an early death at birth, to fight OZ, to lay down their lives in ultimate sacrifice for the colonies. Nothing comes above that duty, even their own lives. But the colonies don't see this, through OZ's manipulation, they come to hate the Gundams, their own saviors, and only a precious few really see the real enemy, and OZ destroys them one by one.

Despite this, the young pilots refuse to give up, giving their whole even while they are crying as they are betrayed by their homes. They take beatings that are unimaginable; any lesser person would have not withstood it. And they fight other wars, battles taking place inside their selves as they fight to obtain a true identity, after all, a weapon has no place in this world after war, and that is what they are, weapons, not even humans.....on the outside. They have been trained to seek and destroy, out of love, but who do they kill? Who is the real enemy? One of the things about Gundam Wing is, there is no true enemy, yes, there are bad people, but they are just as confused and lost as any person who has done bad and regrets it. Who shall be forgiven, are the pilots actually the 'real' enemy? When will this war end, who will die, and is the sacrifice the pilots are making all in vain?

Gundam Wing is full of hidden meanings and the plot is very well thought out and deep. Children may have trouble understanding it as it is very deep and complicated as well as dealing with political issues and military control.

Though this show is a bit violent, I myself have only see unedited versions and never dubbed, and I have to say there is barely any blood except for ocasional trickles down the side of the face that a band aid could take care of.

But there is death in this series, death is a fact of life that is depicted in Gundam Wing, nothing gory though the pilots do go through turbulence and hard feelings after they have killed someone. And yes, it does revolve around 15 year olds KILLING but that's what a soldier does, our world is no better.

There are mildy bad words,the 's' word, the 'h' word and the 'd' word. Nothing really bad. In the edited version, the swearing and blood is cut out.

And there are questionable quotes the pilots yell out when they battle such as:
'I will kill you' or 'The God of Death is back from h*ll' However, these are edited out in the edited version.

Slight humor and lots of tears make this a wonderful show and I would suggest at least taking a quick peak at it as I wouldn't rate it more than PG.


Parent's Guide Rating:

yellow (parental guidance advised)

There isn't a lot of foul language used. For the most, the dialog is quite clean. Due to the political nature of the story, it will probably be difficult for children to grasp.

As stated above, this anime is about war so expect some big fire fights between mechs. Most of the violence shown is in the mobile suits, so it isn't gory. It's sort of like Power Rangers in that respect. Occasionally, there are some mildly bloody scenes such has Heero's suicide attempts.

While the series contains no nudity whatsoever it does contain slight cursing. Nothing more severe however than what could be seen on channels like TNT and TBS. But if this is a problem there are 2 versions currently released in the United States. One is a completely edited one that removes all cursing and the few scenes that contain blood. The other is completely uncut but overall not that much is there to take out.



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